“Are you okay baby?” Jennifer called up as she stood there with Sheila and Chloe staring up at me as I helped the stranger to his feet.
“I’m okay, babes—this guy was just about zombie chow though.” I answered as I looked the man over closely.
“T-Thank you, man—I thought for sure that those damned things were going to kill me!” He stated as he bent over panting from exhaustion.
“Who the hell are you and where did you come from?” I asked as I placed my hand on the magnum at my side.
“My name is Garry Norman…I’m from Atlanta…I have been living in my apartment building now for the better part of a decade but the other day those things broke inside and came after me—I was forced to jump out of my kitchen window and use power lines to climb down to the street; those things were on my ass as I found that old Volkswagen and they grabbed hold of the top and the hood and tried to get at me as I fled from the city. I knocked off the original group of them when I was passing through Douglasville but then more of them swarmed me and I barely made it here in one piece.” The man answered through short breaths.
“My name is Chaz Watkins—those are my girlfriends below; I am in charge of this camp and the fortifications of this wall so I sure hope that you are who you say you are or else you’ll find that you were better off outside with those dead and rotting sons of bitches.” I stated firmly.
“I’m not gonna cause you any trouble—you saved my ass back there…if you can let me stay here for a few days I’ll pull my own weight and if you end up wanting me to leave then I will; just don’t put me back out there right now.” The man answered in a pleading tone.
“Very well, the ladder is behind you.” I answered as I directed his attention to the steel ladder that went down to the field where my women were waiting.
He climbed down and I followed and I took him to the rest of the group that was still there and introduced him, he then chose a spot underneath a nearby tree where he collapsed from exhaustion and ended up falling asleep; I wasn’t completely sure on how well he could be trusted so I turned to Marco and Regan and told them to keep an eye on him. At that same time many miles away, Hugo and the others were approaching Fort Benning—they had been on the road for several hours and hadn’t stopped but once to siphon fuel from several wrecked vehicles in order to refill the tanks of the Eco-roamer and the hotrod that Billy and Kayla were driving; once they had entered the parameter they all got out with their weapons in hand and looked around—it looked like a lot of people had died there as the concrete walkway as well as the parking lot was full of long dead victims; many had been soldiers and others were civilians, of course they were all nothing more than skeletons in tattered clothes now.
“Search the area by twos—we’ll meet back here in twenty minutes.” Hugo instructed as he checked the ammo clip in his assault rifle.
Everyone nodded and split off into different directions, Billy and Kayla headed toward the rear of the compound where it looked like the military vehicles were kept—once they were in view of the field behind the compound Billy’s jaw just about dropped at the sight of what was before them; there were several tanks parked nearby, one that had a long three barreled Gatlin gun sticking out of the front, the other one was a T-90S Battle Tank and these vehicles looked like they had been sitting there for as long as the world had been overrun with zombies.
“Look at that!” Kayla exclaimed pointing at a spot just beyond the tanks.
There sitting in the lot on what looked like a small runway was a fighter jet that Billy quickly identified as a A-10 Warthog, not far from that was another AH-1 Cobra Gunship like they had used when they had fled from the Genocide bio-weapon several years before; several more vehicles around the lot caught their eyes and those included a mobile rocket launcher type of truck that looked like it had been decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, a massive M1134 Stryker that upon inspection was found to be filled with long dead soldiers who were now all bones—the other one was a large truck that had a large trailer with a Howitzer gun mounted on it and last was an H1 Hummer.
“We’ll fly the Cobra Gunship back to the homestead as we’re familiar with it and how it operates; I imagine that Beau might be able to fly the Warthog—the others can take the tank and the few other vehicles.” Billy stated as he walked over to stand beside of the Cobra Gunship.
“It really feels like we’re going to war now…” Kayla stated with a distant tone.
“I know, but we’ve got to be able to defend ourselves against those damned marauders as well as the zombies and other mutations.” Billy answered wrapping his left arm around her.
That was when gunfire rang out from somewhere behind them and a few rounds struck the side of the Cobra Gunship causing sparks to fly—Billy glanced toward the direction the bullets had come from and they saw a lone female figure with long blonde hair running through the lot; she had what looked like an M4 assault rifle in her arms and she was running the opposite direction.
“Who the fucking hell is that?” Kayla shouted as she and Billy took chase after the mysterious woman.
They chased her into the inner courtyard of the compound and then they were forced to stop and dive behind an old dumpster as the woman turned and opened fire on them again, they were completely cut off from even making a move as the woman continued to fire away at them and that was when Beau and Hugo appeared behind her and Beau struck her in the back of the head with the butt of his assault rifle knocking her cold.
“You guys okay?” Hugo called as Billy and Kayla poked their heads up from behind the dumpster.
“Yeah, we’re fine—she just took us by surprise…who the hell is she anyway?” Billy answered as he and Kayla came over to stand before the unconscious woman.
The rest of the group appeared seconds later and they all looked over the mysterious woman who looked like she had been surviving on her own for many years—her blonde hair was somewhat ratty-looking and her face was moderately dirty; she was dressed in green camouflage that was torn in places and black undergarments could be seen through the material.
“What are we going to do with her?” Kira asked as she stared down at the woman and then at the others.
“We better take her back with us and figure out who she is—we can’t afford to leave her here when she could revive and track us to our camp.” Hugo answered as he stared down at the motionless woman in deep thought.
“Yeah…I see your point…I just hope that Chaz doesn’t mind us bringing back another potential infiltrator…” Beau answered as he grabbed the woman’s arms and wrapped a plastic cuff around her wrists and pulled it tight to where she wouldn’t be able to get loose once she was awake.
He then done the same to her feet and Yuri picked her up and slung her over his left shoulder carrying her over and putting her into the back of the Eco-roamer where he stood guard over her while the rest of the group gathered up the weapons and vehicles they had found; Billy and Kayla returned to the Cobra Gunship and fueled it up before starting the engines—Beau fueled up the A-10 Warthog and climbed into the cockpit and the rest of the group got the ground vehicles ready. After twenty or so more minutes they were ready to leave and return to the homestead and that was when a bad thunderstorm came up—rain began to pummel the area and Billy and Kayla as well as Beau took to the air and headed toward their homestead as the others followed in the ground vehicles; most of the other ground vehicles were driven by only one person as they had to bring the Eco-roamer and the hotrod back with them as well. The area was also starting to become overrun by dead-heads and other mutations that struck the outside of the vehicles as they passed leaving the lonely fort behind; it took them the next several hours to get back to the homestead and by midnight that same night Beau had somehow landed the Warthog in the field not far from the well house and Billy and Kayla had also landed their Cobra Gunship. The noise of the jet landing woke me up as well as
Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe and we quickly got dressed and went downstairs and outside to see what was going on, that was when Marco and Regan ran past me toward the front gate to open it as the Eco-roamer entered followed by the hotrod and then five other vehicles that were massive and extremely loud; I stared at them with awe realizing that at least two of them were heavily armored tanks, one was a mobile rocket launcher, there was a M1134 Stryker type of APC vehicle, a large truck with a trailer that sported a Howitzer gun and the last one was an H1 Hummer. The others gathered around the dying out fire and that was when I saw Yuri carry a female figure over before us and sat her down on the ground before us.
“Who is this?” I asked as I stared down at the female figure that appeared to be unconscious.
“We don’t know—she attacked us when we were gathering these vehicles…I doubt that she is a marauder because she was all alone and by the way she is dressed she’s a survivor of the outbreak.” Beau answered in a technical tone.
That was when the eyes of the female figure at our feet opened and started darting around at us and her surroundings—she almost seemed like a wild animal who had been caught in the wild and brought into captivity for the first time; I leaned down to try and ask her who she was but she kicked and spit at me trying to get out of her bindings.
“Shit…this isn’t going to work—I think that for everyone’s safety she be locked up in the shed until we can figure out what to do with her.” I stated as I stood back up and glanced around at the others.
“I’d have to agree with you on that—she acts like a wild animal and until we can figure out who she is then she’s a threat to us.” Beau answered as he motioned to Yuri who stepped forward picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder again.
She was struggling and screaming and I couldn’t help thinking how much she sounded like a zombie or one of the other creatures out in the open—that was when she suddenly bit into Yuri’s left shoulder causing him to yelp in pain before dropping her onto the ground which looked to have stunned her; he then reared his right foot back and kicked her in the face knocking her unconscious again. I ran over and checked on his wound and I saw that it looked pretty bad, I knew that this woman wasn’t infected but the bite that she had inflicted on his shoulder would easily get infected if it wasn’t taken care of quickly—Desiree and Kira took a look at his wound and shortly after cleaned it out with antiseptic and then went about sewing the torn flesh; I grabbed the woman’s arms and Beau took her feet and we carried her over to the windowless shed that was behind the main house and placed her inside on the floor, I cut the plastic bindings off of her feet but left the ones on her wrists and we stepped back out locking the door from the outside nice and tight making it to where she wouldn’t be able to escape.
“I hate treating a woman like that—especially one who has been through the same hell that all of us have over the years, but she is dangerous and until we figure out who she is and what to do with her that’s where she’ll stay.” I stated as we rejoined the others.
That was when a shadowy figure suddenly flew down out of nowhere and hit me from behind causing me to almost lose my footing, I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my left shoulder and I turned and locked eyes with a dark-skinned female figure—she was sleek and fast like an assassin and she leapt backward in a somersault before I could strike her; that was when I got a good look at her and seen that she had what looked like silver-plated bionic arms and on the end of her left fist were two razor-sharp blades that she had used to stab me with.
“Marauder!” Joshua shouted as he and Nicole ran forward and opened fire on the female figure.
The female attacker somehow dodged the hail of bullets and started coming at me again—I grabbed the magnum at my side and pointed it straight at her firing several rounds that she dodged as well but the last round hit her in the forehead sending her to the ground where she twitched for a few seconds before becoming perfectly still; Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe tended to the wound on the back of my left shoulder as Hugo, Beau and Desiree cautiously strolled over to check to see if the female attacker was dead.
“We saw this woman briefly during our captivity at the Ringgold enemy facility where you guys rescued us—she is a marauder commando…” Joshua stated as he and Nicole came to stand beside of me and my women.
“I’ve never seen anyone move the way she did before…the damned bitch dodged bullets like they were nothing at all.” Billy stated with a troubled look on his face.
“I have an idea…it might give us some insight on what is going on.” Desiree stated as she turned and headed into the nearby building where she had her laboratory and she came back out carrying a case of medical supplies and she knelt down next to the body of the attacker and stuck a needle into the stomach of the body collecting a good amount of blood before returning the blood sample to her analysis kit.
After several more moments Beau called our attention to a tattoo of sorts that was on the back of the female attacker’s neck—it looked like a barcode and a name was tattooed above it that read ‘Chryse’.
“Was that her name or something?” Kira asked in a curious tone.
“Who knows—all I know is that we’re going to have to double our watch; if one marauder assassin can get in here than more can.” I stated in an aggravated tone as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe began sewing my wound.
“Guys…this blood sample is giving me some strange results…” Desiree stated from behind us where she sat before the fire studying the sample and her devices.
“What do you mean?” Hugo asked as we all turned to her and walked over toward her.
“I know that I’ll never be as good at this stuff as Amy was, but if I am reading this right this woman has the same pathogens and antibodies in her bloodstream as we do.” Desiree stated as she looked up at everyone.
“Are you saying that she was immune to the viral strains like we are?” I asked in a confused tone as I glanced around at the others.
“It looks that way…I’m not sure what this means though, I’ll have to study into it more thoroughly.” Desiree answered as she glanced back down at her device.
“Find out as much as you can about that blood sample—we need to know what the hell we’re dealing with here.” I instructed as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe wrapped their arms around me.
“Chaz…you better take a look at this!” Marco called from where he stood over near the body of the attacker.
I quickly ran over to where he was followed by the rest of the group and we saw that the corpse of the female attacker was starting to rapidly disintegrate—the flesh on her bones was rotting off and much of her internal organs were liquefying right there before our eyes.
“What the fuck, dude…what is causing this to happen?” Regan asked in a confused tone as she backed up a few steps from the corpse.
“I don’t know—get back everyone!” I shouted as I grabbed one of the Molotov Cocktails that were sitting on the nearby table.
The rest of the group got well enough away and I ignited the rag at the top of the bottle before throwing the Molotov at the corpse, I then ran for it as the area where it had been was engulfed in flames—the flames burned the body and everything that was coming out of it until nothing was left; Hugo and Beau grabbed fire extinguishers from nearby and doused the flames until the fire was completely out and everyone gathered back around the fire pit.
“I wonder if all of the marauders are like that one was…” Sheila stated in deep thought as she rested her head on my left shoulder.
“I have been thinking about something and it troubles me greatly…” Beau stated all of a sudden.
“What’s that?” I asked glancing over at him.
“I’ve been thinking about the marauders—trying to remember when it was that we encountered them for the first time…” Beau answered with a deeply serious expression.
“Well�
�the first time that we encountered them was when we were attacked at that gas station in Lusk…but the first time that I remember us actually coming face to face with them was when we stopped to get food at that grocery store…where Noah and his family were killed…” I answered as I thought back on the one event that had changed so much in our travels.
“Yeah…and that wasn’t until we had already faced and destroyed the Genocide creature and headed east to find Bowman…I’m starting to wonder if some of those marauders aren’t those creatures that we doused with the Antitoxin Sample Base back in Winterset.” Beau continued.
“Wait just a damned minute there, Sherlock—how could that have made them into marauders?” Billy cut in with a disbelieving tone.
“What if…what if the Antitoxin Sample 3 was really this Redeemer Strain all along…what if we have been believing a lie for the past several years—since the beginning?” I stated as I got to my feet and started pacing around the fire.
“If that is the case then we are all infected with it…that vaccine that we synthesized in New York City…that was derived from the Antitoxin Sample 3…we’ve all been inoculated with it since it was created.” Hugo stated in a distant tone as he got up and fetched a nearby bottle of scotch.
“Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here—we need information and we need to figure out the truth behind our past actions and the truth that was hidden away in Bowman’s files.” I answered as I stopped pacing and turned to the rest of the group.
“You’re right—we need to find the truth and find it soon before something bad happens…it gives me the creeps knowing that we could all be carrying something that madman created.” Beau answered with a little shiver.
“If we are carriers we need to figure out a way to create a cure—a real cure this time and not some cloaked fake…our best chance of learning the truth is to get inside of that Ringgold facility and search it top to bottom; Darkbourne isn’t going to stay in one spot for long—especially when he knows that we have the ability to destroy him and everything he has.” I continued as I sat back down next to my women.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 58